Audi robot arms take over London, write messages with LEDs day and night (video)

Here's yet another fine preview of the inevitable robot apocalypse -- car-assembling arms in the city center overlooking us feeble humans. For now, though, these machines are merely part of an Kram/Weisshaar art installation dubbed Outrace. Throughout the week-long London Design Festival, you can go to Outrace.org to submit a short text message that you wish to be displayed in Trafalgar Square, and with a bit of luck, the monitoring staff will pick up your greeting. What happens next is that the eight LED-equipped robot arms (KUKA KR 180; loaned by Audi) will start scribing your message in the air, which is then captured by the 36 long-exposure cameras surrounding the stage (even during the day, courtesy of welding glass filter), and it'll end up on the LED board as pictured. Stuck outside London? Fret not, as you can see the beasts in action via the website's live video stream, or you can watch bullet-time videos of each text submission on Outrace's YouTube channel -- you can see our message in both clips after the break. Enjoy!

Update: Turns out the robots picked up our second message as well, and better yet, it was displayed during the day! Check out the new video after the break.%Gallery-102595%